Two Hearts

  “Faris join us now,” smiled Darius.

  “Faris sick,” nodded Theo, sitting down in front of Selene while Faris took a seat beside him, across from Darius.

  “Welcome to the club.”

  Out of his three classmates, Faris ignored not one, not two, but all three of them. Silently, he stared at the prepared meal in front of him and picked up a spoon to stir his milky gruel. And gradually, hesitantly, he put a spoonful into his mouth while the others stared.

  “Have you put your hair up before, Faris?” Selene asked first, pouring her small bowl of fruits into her porridge.

  “Look cool,” nodded Darius, already half-finished with his porridge.

  “I think it looks nice, too,” Theo mumbled while surveying the various bowls that had been placed in front of him. A bowl of porridge in the center, and a wooden spoon and fork to the right. On the left was a small bowl of honey, a small bowl containing a square of butter beside a larger bowl of fruits, and a plate with a small bun. To the right were half a glass of milk, a cup of water, and a minuscule cup of a thick purple juice.

  Staying silent, the stoic Faris continued to eat his food without a sound.

  “So, how was morning blessing?” Theo offered first, picking up the small bowl of honey and drizzling it on top of his fruits.

  “Nice. Different.”

  Selene, still in her Academy robe, shrugged. “Much different from doing it back at the Academy, but it’s the way I learned it growing up.”

  “Feel closer to the Earth Mother here,” mumbled the Ancient, scooping up a porridge-covered berry into his mouth. “Origin of Mother and Her Graces is within the Royal Boundary.”

  Remembering Halle’s small history lesson in the infirmary well—one that he had deliberately set aside because there was already far too much to consider even without being a possible ‘reincarnation’ of a Grace—Theo finally took a moment to recall what other pieces of Ancient history he had retained despite not believing in any of it.

  The most common theory that was taught to students at school, as an Ancient theory and nothing more, was that the Earth Mother descended upon the world with twelve seeds named after the stars in the sky. After constructing individual abodes for all twelve seeds on the land now occupied by the Royal Capital, she waited for each of them to awaken. The first was Anasot, who created magic, followed by Eslah, who created language. Lycea, who came next, created the land, then Caspos and Sephec, who created weather, and then Noa, who created the mountains and beaches. Sepicas awoke not long after, creating rivers and lakes while Uphes and Chalsis brought animals. Then came the youngest Graces: Thaon created trees and flowers, Hythe spread love among the people, and Ethy, the youngest and weakest of them all, brought suffering.

  The mosaics of the Graces in the infirmary he knew had a lot of history behind them as well, but he had learned them while bored on physician duty one day, consuming the small summaries without remembering much, like all other unremarkable fiction.

  That was the extent of his knowledge of Ancient history, aside from the fact that all twelve months in the year were named after the Grace born in that month instead of the order they were born in.

  Theo let out a thoughtful hum as he messily ripped his bun in two. “Speaking of the Earth Mother—I heard from a priestess that there are supposedly two other secret sanctuaries for the Earth Mother? Making the total fourteen?”

  Somewhat comfortingly, Selene looked as confused as Theo had felt while talking to the lady earlier. “Fourteen? I know there are the symbols and two other tents here for the Earth Mother, but sanctuaries…”

  As she drifted off, they both turned to Darius, who was staring into an empty bowl. Completely still.

  “Darius?” Theo nudged.

  “We…should not speak of this.”

  Theo rested his elbow on the table and his chin in his palm. “Nothing at all?”

  The Ancient set down his spoon, still staring into an empty bowl. “The trees. The Souls of the Earth Mother. She…the Earth Mother is like the underground root system, nourished by the Lakes of the Graces here, protected by Royal Capital. It—She—connects the world. Ties together, binds Her to Her Graces, sustains their sanctuaries. The…the locations of the Earth Mother—it is…something we cannot speak of. It is the end of all things. It is Death. If we destroy it, the weakest point…the world…the world will lose balance.”

  “So you know where one of them is?” Theo insisted. “Death?”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “It is a very sacred thing, like tradition. It is unspeakable, even among Ancients. It is where the…the children end. It is…where the rites are performed. Will be performed. It is…where I will end. The closest place in the world to the Earth Mother and Death.”

  A heavy silence weighed over the students.

  “And the forward facet? Life?”

  Darius visibly twitched at the mention of it.

  “Darius?” Theo asked again.

  “No one knows where it is. No one. The Earth Mother went into seclusion, in history…we do not know where. And like Death, the balance will be gone…something terrible will happen if found. We cannot say.”

  Theo sat up. “What do you mean? How did people find the sanctuary for the backward facet of the Earth Mother, then?”

  “It is…a feeling. A feeling of closeness that all with Ancient blood can feel, that cannot be denied. The Graces. The Earth Mother. Like the sanctuaries, the dizziness, it is not wrong.”

  He could feel his heart race. “So…so no one has ever been close enough to the other half—to the forward facet—to figure out where it is?”

  “…Correct.”

  “You told Ty that she needs to destroy all the sanctuaries. Even the elders told her the same. What if she needs to kill those, too?”

  “We…we cannot talk about it. As much as I want to help. But…but maybe…” His eyes were glassy. “Maybe she found out. Maybe she knows and can stop. Or maybe we don’t need to destroy Her completely, only…only sever from us.” The Ancient looked up, eyes full of desperation and regret. “She left. That is what matters, right? She has time. She can find out. I believe in her. Our Child of Hope.”

  Theo dug his nails into his thighs, unable to contain his swirling emotions anymore. “Why did it take this long for us to—the Headmistress, the Elder, you—why did everyone send Ty off when there’s a possibility that she’s not going to find all of them? Do they want her to fail? What if she doesn’t find out? It’s not just—it’s not just the twelve sanctuaries now, it’s fourteen. And one of them, even the Ancients haven’t heard of before! What—what did you—” He passed his hands over his face and groaned. “Do you have any idea what you—what you all took away from her by telling her to do this?”

  When he was done, he was standing up with his trembling hands flat against the wooden table. “You told her to get rid of magic,” he seethed, staring straight into Darius’s dark eyes. “Are you honestly telling me you are basing all this on expecting her to know?”

  “Yes.”

  For the first time in ages, Theo felt more than just adrenaline, but malice course through his veins. “Yes? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “If there is anyone who can do it, it is her.”

  Staring at the Ancient’s watery eyes, Theo exhaled loudly and sat back down with a loud and defeated thump.

  “If…if she find. Is easy. She can use magic. Speak words, like…like in Hythe.”

  The burning. The screams. The water’s edge.

  Theo wanted to throw up.

  “What…did you do to Hythe?” Selene finally spoke.

  “I burned it down,” responded Theo plainly, the secret no longer mattering to him as he put a hand on his temple and stared at his full bowls.

  “That’s why they called you the bearer of Mother’s sins. And the other sanctuaries—they were…Ty’s fault? It’s her fault that the Graces disbanded? Did she—”

  “No, Selene,” responded Darius quickly. “No, it is our fault.”

  “The Ancients can’t do anything,” Selene fought back. “It was Ty who did it—you even brought her in that one time!”

  “It was us who asked her to.”

  “She didn’t want to. She never asked for any of this,” whispered Theo.

  I can’t get you out of Fieldwork.

  I don’t have space for another class.

  Are you actually sick?

  I’m as not sick as you are.

  Those halcyon days that would never return.

  So, what’s the problem? You can’t take supplementary classes, you can’t get better, so eat breakfast! Graces, Theo, it’s just food.

  And what are you going to do if I don’t? That’s right, nothing.

  I’ll get breakfast with you.

  No, you won’t.

  “That’s what she’s doing now?” continued Sel without restraint, acid thickly coating her words. “Going around Chloris looking for the sanctuaries, killing everything so she can wipe out magic? Why does she even have to do it in the first place?”

  But Darius’s compassion was overflowing. “Yes. It is Ty’s mission. It is what the Earth Mother wants, and it is by Her will that we see this through.”

  “Okay, and say she somehow does all this? She’ll come back after, pretend like nothing happened? After destroying the only way for us to cast magic on top of the villages where the Ancients live? Is that why the Ancients are missing? Is she killing them?”

  “No.”

  The finality of the word hurt more now that he knew that her mission could have been doomed from the start.

  “No to which part?” demanded the princess incredulously.

  “No…Ty will not come back. She…she needs to die to complete the rite. To release the souls of the sinned. That includes the Ancients who have done a terrible wrong. That includes me, Selene. Please, do not speak ill of her any more. I do not wish to hear it.”

  The habitually prickly Selene, who would scarcely listen to someone telling her what to do, fell silent at the tender reprimand.

  Gradually, ever so slowly, the students returned to eating. Theo ate the porridge, feeling a gaping emptiness within him as he took bite after bite. Not tasting the food, not feeling anything but an immeasurable ache in his chest. Even the honeyed fruits, the bread, the bitter purple drink that tasted like medicinal wildberries. He ate everything, not wasting a single drop offered by the ones who worshiped the dying Graces, one of which he had felled.

  And then Faris finally spoke, his words carefully rehearsed as if he had heard them from somewhere before, or he had been thinking of them for a long time.

  “I’ve been wondering what the Wind Stream has been hiding, all this time.”

  After a slight pause, Darius replied slowly, carefully. “I…do not know.”

  “The Wind Stream—are you talking about Ethy?” piped up a priestess who was walking by with an empty plate. “All but abandoned—the area past it up north designated a dead area. There should be nothing more than mountains and snow; though if there is something, I doubt it’d be worth the trek. Especially since the Wind Stream has only grown stronger recently.”

  Faris lowered his gaze, then briefly glanced at Theo before dropping it entirely and standing up. “Ah. I see.”

  In that brief moment, Theo knew. It was that painful expression again. The one that had known something all along. Something that Theo still could not understand, something that he had no right to interfere with no matter how much he wished he could.

  Ty. It had always been her.

  He suppressed the stirring in his heart.